Furniture and equipment costs ( or cost ) ....?

[duiter]

Dear teachers,

When two or more uncountable nouns combined together, do I have to use singular or plural form of verb ?

Furniture and equipment costs 1 million of the budget

Furniture and equipment cost 1 million of the budget


Thanks

 

[MartinEnglish]

I'd say cost - two different (albeit uncountable) things, thus plural.

In the same way that I'd say "love and happiness are important" not "love and happiness is important".

But someone please correct me if I'm wrong!

 

[Rover_KE]

The problem here is '1 million of the budget'.

What do you mean by that?

And don't forget the full stop at the end.

Rover

 

[SoothingDave]

Are there two items on the budget, "furniture" and "equipment" that together total 1 million?

Or is there one item called "furniture and equipment"?

"Equipment repair and maintenance" is probably one budget item

"Nuclear warheads and school lunches" are hopefully two different items.